On the 16th of October the Queen herself opened the Aberdeen New Waterworks at Invercannie, twenty-two miles distant from the “Granite City,” and a convenient drive of thirty miles from Balmoral. After receiving an address, her Majesty, speaking in public in her official capacity for the first time since the death of the Prince Consort, said:--“I thank you for your dutiful address, and am very sensible of the fresh mark of the loyal attachment of my neighbours the people of Aberdeen. I have felt that, at a time when the attention of the country has been so anxiously directed to the state of the public health, it was right that I should make an exertion to testify my sense of the importance of a work so well calculated as this to promote the health and comfort of your ancient city.” The Queen then, advancing to an ingenious piece of machinery erected at the edge of the reservoir, gave several turns to the handle, and in an instant the water came plunging in, pure and plentiful. The Queen then declared the Aberdeen Waterworks open. On the 30th of November her Majesty received an enthusiastic welcome from her subjects in Wolverhampton, on the occasion of her inaugurating a statue erected to the Prince Consort. The Queen was accompanied by the Earl of Derby, Princess Helena, Prince Christian, the Princess Louise, and the customary suite. Between two and three thousand people were admitted into the railway station-yard and approaches. At the entrance there had been built an arch of coal, firmly joined by mortar, with abutments of pig-iron. Trophies of picks, spades, and other implements of the collier’s trade were so placed as to give relief to the material of the arch, which, though not very sightly, was very characteristic of the local industry. Beyond this was a trophy of coal, thirty feet high, formed of immense blocks some of them weighing nearly three tons, from Lord Dudley’s pits. Nothing could exceed the enthusiasm and devotion displayed by the population. Town and county assembled in the streets. The colliers, the puddlers, and the forgemen from the iron districts, the workers in metal, japan, _papier-maché_, and in all the staple trades of Wolverhampton, lined the barriers, and raised a mighty shout when the royal carriages appeared. The treacherous weather of an English November made it, of course, indispensable that the ceremony of unveiling the statue should be performed and witnessed under cover, and an amphitheatre had accordingly been constructed which held two thousand people. The Bishop of Lichfield having offered up a prayer, the Recorder read an address to the Queen, which she accepted. Lord Derby having handed her a sword, she next bestowed the accolade on the kneeling Mayor, who thereupon rose up as Sir John Morris. Before leaving the pavilion, the Queen desired the Mayor to tell her subjects in Wolverhampton that she was greatly pleased with her reception, and with the loyal feeling which had been manifested.